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Martian Republic

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From: Haltom City- Dallas/Fort Worth

Registered: 2004-06-13

Posts: 855

Re: Space Plane Shelved?

Space Plane shelved? I am not saying this thing exist or not. But according to the article, the military or somebody has a carrier plane and space plane to orbit configuration. For anybody that interested in it, go to web site below for more information.

http://www.aviationweek.com/avnow/news/ … 0606p1.xml

Larry,

SpaceNut

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From: New Hampshire

Registered: 2004-07-22

Posts: 28,832

Re: Space Plane Shelved?

Original post from New Space Shuttle

A little bell rang loudly about a thread that some what matched the content of this article Did Pentagon create orbital space plane? Magazine reports evidence for classified project, sparking some skepticism

Following the links lead to a more complete article Two-Stage-to-Orbit 'Blackstar' System Shelved at Groom Lake? as Martian Republic has posted to start a new thread.

One Pentagon official suggests that the Blackstar system was "owned" and operated by a team of aerospace contractors, ensuring government leaders' plausible deniability. When asked about the system, they could honestly say, "we don't have anything like that."

We know that something very simular to this is possible but at what expense.

SpaceNut

Administrator

From: New Hampshire

Registered: 2004-07-22

Posts: 28,832

Re: Space Plane Shelved?

Short topic but once it were merged to the others would be a complete discussion as to where we are in space plane developement as the airforce has been continuing the research x34B demonstrator which has been in orbit multiple times now.

SpaceNut

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From: New Hampshire

Registered: 2004-07-22

Posts: 28,832

Re: Space Plane Shelved?

As meantioned by the title Military Spaceplane outline - By Northrop Grumman by Rxke it was not gone but quietly being worked on....

DARPA's XS-1 spacecraft could hit speeds of Mach 10

The XS-1 is airplane-like space vehicle that can fly to space and rapidly launch small satellites, space weapons, and more into orbit at the edge of Earth's atmosphere. This space plane can then return, land, get refueled, and take onboard another delivery, before it blasts off again. The idea is that this craft would be a game-changer allowing the U.S. to travel to space and then return to Earth and fly again within 24 hours. In just a few short years, the XS-1 it may make it possible for one single aircraft to take ten return trips to space over the course of ten days. The quest to achieve a small, reusable robotics-flown space plane is the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) XS-1 program or Experimental Spaceplane 1. The hope is that it will blast off on its first mission in a few years. The Agency has chosen three companies — Boeing, Northrop Grumman, and Masten Space Systems — to move forward and continue in competition to become the XS-1 producer. One of the key goals is for XS-1 to launch 3,000 to 5,000 pounds of payloads into orbit. Another objective is that this spacecraft will be reusable and could be run in a way similar to that of commercial airplanes. The companies must now complete their XS-1 design and test their tech before August next year. The first XS-1 mission to space could be as early as 2018.

GW Johnson

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From: McGregor, Texas USA

Registered: 2011-12-04

Posts: 5,455

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Re: Space Plane Shelved?

XS-1 is not a spaceplane.  It is a high-speed,  high-altitude rocket-powered airplane that provides boost to a point where a "submunition" can reach orbit single-stage at decent payload fraction.  Such submunitions are very likely solid rockets with liquid orbit-tuning thrusters. 

The big rocket airplane needs to exceed Mach 6 and preferably reach Mach 10 to do this job effectively.  Heat transfer is THE limiting factor:  this thing will need essentially the same heat protection scheme as would serve returning from orbit.  Also,  I really doubt that the submunition can be externally carried,  because of catastrophic shock-impingement heating. 

Nothing else has ever survived that at speeds over M3 in the sensible air.  That means the submunition has to be carried internally in a bay that you open upon leaving the sensible air,  and that you must close before falling back into the sensible air.  Having an internal bay just makes the rocket plane larger and more expensive yet. 

Make the payload-to-orbit big,  and the submunition is really big,  per the mass ratio equation.  Make the submunition bigger,  and the rocket plane gets even more enormous exponentially,  as well.  Sooner or later,  you get to the water-balloon-resting-on-nails problem with the aircraft sitting on its landing gear.  That's because mass increases as dimension cubed,  while the strength of parts increases only as dimension squared.  The fundamental unit strength of materials does not scale,  a bitter fact of life that busts a lot of hopes and dreams.   

It is for all those reasons that I think all near-term future spaceplanes will be smaller than the shuttle (more like X-37B),  and will deliver small payloads for niche applications where $/delivered ton is not important.  We'll need a physics breakthrough to break the deadlock we have with chemical propulsion to get around that limitation.  I do NOT see one on the horizon. 

GW

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GW Johnson
McGregor,  Texas

"There is nothing as expensive as a dead crew,  especially one dead from a bad management decision"

RobertDyck

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From: Winnipeg, Canada

Registered: 2002-08-20

Posts: 7,800

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Re: Space Plane Shelved?

The video in the article linked shows a rocket strapped to the back of XS-1. Not internal.

In the 1960s, the Soviet Union's response to Dynasour was Spiral. It would have launched a spacecraft with a 2-stage rocket from the back of a high speed aircraft. Their solution was a streamlined cone moulded into the top of the aircraft. The spacecraft had a blunted nose with an angle so it could slip free of the cone shaped "wind shield" during launch. Yes, separation was at high altitude, above "sensible air".

Here are some images of Spiral. Please pardon the captions. And no, they didn't finish it.

SpaceNut

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From: New Hampshire

Registered: 2004-07-22

Posts: 28,832

Re: Space Plane Shelved?

I see what you are say GW in that its not a true space plane as its flight path is more parabolic and that the reusable craft never does an orbital once around. That its just a momentum tranfer for the payload release before it starts its glide path to base.
It will be interesting to see the out come....